The Samurai and the Digital Princess
by Evil Hero Malicious Edge
Summary: A what-if story: Ulrich was the first one to find and turn on the supercomputer. How will this future events? Read and find out.
1. Prologue

**After reading a section from XANA's lair about Aelita x Ulrich, I was inspired by one of the ideas mention of how Ulrich and Aelita might end up getting feelings for each other if Ulrich was the first one to find the supercomputer instead of Jeremie.**

* * *

For the very first time, Ulrich Stern completely hates his life in the boarding school known as Kadic Adacemy.

At first, the young aspiring martial artist and soccer player thought that living in a school will be all right because it means he will not see the disapproving look on his father's face every day of the week.

His father is essentially the male version of a tiger mother and like one, Alexander Stern pushes his son to be successful academically, even going as far as to homeschooling Ulrich by hiring brilliant tutors when Ulrich was still young before thinking that sending him to a boarding school is a better idea. Ulrich's relationship with his father is a strained one, the two rarely speak to each other in conversations that are outside of academics. Ulrich finds solace to the fact that his father was never physically abusive.

His mother was never around the house since she is a busy fashion designer, actress, and model. Unlike his father, Cheryl Stern is a loving mother and always tells her son that his father is proud of him. Ulrich loves his mom a lot like any son to his mother, but he finds spending time with her to be embarrassing since she has him model clothes for her on several occasions and she even had rehearse him several scenes from famous plays.

Other than the 24/7 lessons from his tutors, life back home was bearable. Since his father is a successful businessman, Ulrich has lived a luxurious life such as eating food prepared by the family's personal chef, sleep in a queen's sized bed, and even watch shows in a large, high definition, flat screen TV. His father even lets him take martial arts lessons, which is one of the things that Ulrich was happy about since he could impressed his father and fighting is one of his passion other than sports.

His first year in Kadic, which is in the 7th grade, was rough, but not by much since he had to get used to a new schedule since Kadic is the first school he has ever attended. Even so, it was manageable since he did not have to worry about going to school late since he lives there and only needs to worry about waking up on time which is also not a problem since his father got him a rather annoying alarm clock.

He gets his own dorm room which he can decorate anyway he likes as long there is nothing that goes against the school's policy. In his old room back home, all he had in his walls were poster regarding academics such mathematics, science, litertature, etc. When Ulrich was finally given his dorm room, he proudly hung up a martial parts poster that he always wanted to do back home.

In just a month into his first year in Kadic, he ended up getting a roommate named William Dunbar, who is a grade above him and older by a year. Ulrich could tell by the clothes, that William wears, that his roommate is a trouble maker. He was right on that assumption since his roommate gets into trouble a lot from riding his skateboard every where on campus to harassing the female student body. William defends himself on the latter by always stating that they were just talking.

Ulrich and William actually got a long after a week of getting to know each other. The younger boy respects William for his martial arts skills and vice-versa; the other students would always see them sparing in the gymnasium. Even though the older teen is not that big in school, he sometimes tutor Ulrich on some subjects since he already learned them and even taught him how to ride on a skateboard.

To Ulrich, William was like the older brother he never had which is why he was sad to see him go. James Dunbar, William's father, decided to pull him out of Kadic Academy to study somewhere else abroad after his son only attended Kadic for six months. After they received the news, the two boys decided to make William's last day in Kadic to be worth it by pulling off a prank.

Since William was never in any of the teachers' favorite list, they were all happy to use him leave. Other than respecting William for being an athlete, Jim, the school's Physical Education teacher, really hated him due to all the trouble he has caused. The PE teacher hated seeing the raven haired teen skateboard around campus and all the ruckus he caused, but what really made his blood boil was finding William's graffiti of him, which depicts the PE teacher in a clown suit with a message saying, "William was here."

Jim went ballistic and demanded William to clean up his prank, but the dark teen was excused from the punishment since he was already long gone by the time Jim went looking for him. Luckily Ulrich was also not punished since there was no evidence that he was part of it other than being a roommate of the crook who did the act, which is not enough.

After William left, Ulrich got depressed for losing his surrogate brother and only friend in school. He became a recluse soon after and devoted most of his time studying and perfecting his martial arts skills, but mostly the latter. All of the students and staff noticed this, but mostly the female student body. Ulrich was already famous among the opposite sex due to his looks and athleticism, but his loner personality made him even more desirable; especially the school principle's own daughter, Elisabeth Delmas, who preferred going by the name Sissi around school.

Sissi is a rather beautiful girl, but that is all that is appealing about her, her looks. On the outside, she is cute, but in the inside is a very annoying brat who thinks she is better than any one on campus all because she is the principle's daughter. She annoys Ulrich on a daily since they go to the same school and have the same classes together. Ulrich has no doubt on his mind that Sissi will persuade her father to have her have the same classes as Ulrich in the future.

When William was still around, he helped Ulrich evade Sissi by making up excuses or when Ulrich is in a tight spot with the principle's daughter. He even looks out for Sissi so he could warn Ulrich to leave the area immediately before she could even make it. Now Ulrich had to spend the rest of his life in Kadic Academy to avoid her without aid. Every time she asks him out on a date, she does not take a no for an answer, so when he "stood her up", she would complain the next day and the cycle starts over again. What a pain.

He barely managed to survive before his first summer vacation started, which he was so ready for because it meant a long vacation from Kadic and Sissi. When he got back home, it was just the same as before: being taught by tutors, living in an empty house without seeing his parents much save for during breakfast and dinner, and getting disapproving looks from his father since his grades are still not up to his expectations.

When summer ended, Ulrich went back to Kadic to attend the 8th grade. Like before, he was pestered by Sissi 24/7 and being back at Kadic reminded him how much he missed his surrogate brother. Also like before, a month into the school year, he ended up getting another roommate, a blonde haired boy who is in the same grade as him.

There was a lot of things that Ulrich hated about his new roommate, Odd Della Robbia. For one, he is no William Dunbar. Also, his current roommate assumed he is dating Sissi, which greatly annoyed him. And then there is Kiwi, his roommate's dog.

Ulrich was both surprised and furious when he found out that Odd brought his pet with him because no animals are allowed on campus and that Kiwi ruined all of his stuff while Odd just lied down on his own bed while it was all happening. Ulrich had half a mind to tell the principle, but he did not after he threatened Odd, but he never did.

He is not a snitch. William taught him that.

* * *

His father still think he is a failure.

Sissi is never getting off his back.

William is gone, so there is no fun.

And now he was to share a room with a dimwit and his dog.

Ulrich really his own life right now.


	2. Chapter 1

**This story is doing good so far. However, there were no dialogue in the last chapter, so I would like same feedback on the characters in this chapter and tell me if I captured them perfectly, close, or not.**

* * *

"Hey Belpois! You there!" Ulrich yelled, but not too much to alert Jim.

Jim Morales is not only the Physical Education teacher, but is also the campus advisor, a very strict one, and does a good job on both accounts despite appearing to be dimwitted. Even if he did get caught, Jim would just give him a warning and a pat on the back since Ulrich is undoubtedly the best soccer player, which Jim greatly respects him for.

Jeremie Belpois is another Kadic student who shares the same classes as Ulrich and is younger by a couple of months. Belpois is basically an almost total opposite to Stern. Instead of excelling in anything physical, he makes it up in all of the other academic classes, especially in both math and science. He has straight A's in all of his class, except for PE where he has a C-.

The blonde genius is not very social and tends to avoid the other students so he could spend more time on working on his computer and build robots that do simple jobs like fetch a ball. Other than ignoring friendly invites from others, Jeremie is in good terms with everyone on campus, except for a couple of two boys, namely Herb and Nicholas.

Herb Pichon is second to Jeremie in terms of grades, which is the very reason the other genius students hates him for. He always tried to best him in anything, but always fail in the end, even in PE. Nicholas Poliakoff is Pichon's only friend in Kadic and follows him because Herb is the only friend he could make since many of the other students avoid him. One reason is because Nicholas always stares off into space and appear brain dead, which people finds weird. Also, he would use any excuse to get into a fight. The two always bullied Jeremie when they have the chance since the 7th grade, but the bullying stopped when Ulrich saved him one day. All it took was a couple of punches and two no longer messed with Jeremie.

The two bullies were going to rat Ulrich out on attacking them since physical assault is strictly against school rules, even if it was self defense. Thankfully, however, they kept their mouth shut thanks to William's threat.

Ulrich and Jeremie are not exactly friends, more like acquaintances since they rarely see each other outside of classes. There were times when the bespectacled boy tutored him, but that was only when Ulrich was desperate to get a good grade on a test since, to Ulrich, William and pretty much anyone in their age range, Jeremie speaks in an alien language when they have a study session. Ulrich also has tutored him, in PE of course. Jeremie sometimes lets Ulrich help test out his robots, which the male brunette finds to be fun.

"Hello, Stern." Jeremie greeted awkwardly. He noticed the subtle hints of anger on his acquaintance. "Is something the matter?"

"Yeah."

"I heard you got a new roommate. Is he a problem?"

"You have no idea."

Jeremie step to the side and gestured him into his room, "Well then, come on in."

Ulrich has slept in Jeremie's dorm room a couple of times in the past, mostly because his ex-roommate sometimes snores at night or when the two pull an all-nighter on studying. Ulrich looked around to see that Jeremie is a neat freak as ever, the only thing in the room that can be considered a mess are the robot parts, which were still neatly organized in way so Jeremie will not misplace any parts.

Jeremie went back to his desk, where he seems to be designing another gizmo while the athlete picks up a remote controller. The controller operates one of Jeremie's gizmos, which has wheels and a mechanical arm that can grab and hold onto stuff, preferably a small ball. Ulrich has taken a liking to this one after testing it the first time, mostly because it almost looks like a car and can control it like a toy version.

"So," Ulrich started as he made the robot move around the room and occasionally made the arm move. "What are you doing?"

"Right now, I'm making the designs for a robot that can play basketball." Jeremie said as he went over the designs.

Ulrich smirked, "Sounds fun...and challenging. I know you're the best in the whole school when it comes to computers, but can you really make something like that?"

"I'd have to if I want to win that competition" Jeremie did not need to turn around to see Ulrich's confused face. "A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Delmas told me personally that the school will be hosting a robot competition in a couple of months. The competition will be officially announced a week from now during class, by the way."

"Cool. I'm definitely not going to miss that." Ulrich said with a bit of enthusiasm. "You'll win for sure."

Jeremie smiled a little from the encouragement. His classmate may not bright as him, but he admires Ulrich's strength and determination and appreciates the time he defended him and the times he helped him shape up, so that Jim will be less hard on him in PE. He will not disappoint him.

After a long silent moment, Jeremie sighed loudly in frustration as he crumbled up the design and threw it into the trash bin. Ulrich noticed the small mountain formation of crumbled up paper.

"Something the matter?" He asked. Jeremie was about to explain, but Ulrich cut him off first to say, "In layman's term, please."

Ulrich has been trying to teach Jeremie to dumb down his complicated explanation so their tutoring session would be easier and also, not known by Jeremie, so the blonde genius can communicate better without sounding like a nerdy alien.

Belpois blush a little, "Nothing's wrong, it's just that I have limited parts."

"Can't you just disassemble some of your other robots for parts?"

Jeremie shakes his head, "They are not the right parts I'm looking for and I have been trying to see if I can make a operative and effective robot with the parts that I do have, but so far I have been coming up short."

"How about you buy the parts?"

"I thought of that, but the stores in town either don't have the parts that I'm looking for or too expensive for me buy. I also tried buying them online, but they would be delivered here too late for the competition."

Ulrich put a hand under his chin, "There has to be some other way."

Jeremie thought alongside him until an idea popped up.

"I could go there...no, no, no. Forget it."

The male brunette looks at him, "What are you talking about?" He noticed how Jeremie got quiet soon after. "Come on, you can tell me."

Jeremie thought about it for a second and was reluctant, but Ulrich's gaze on him wore him down.

"You may find this weird, but I found this manhole cover."

Ulrich raises an eyebrow, "How is that weird exactly?"

"It's weird because I found it in the middle of the woods."

"Okay, that does sound weird." Ulrich admitted. Usually you would find one in the middle of the streets. "Where are you going with this?"

"I was getting to that." Jeremie said. "I was getting so frustrated from parts that I was desperate enough to go down."

Ulrich stopped him right there as a small smirk formed.

"Wait, did that happen the day before you were absent all day?" He recalled that very incident that occurred around a week ago. "No wonder you smelled funny when I came to check on you." He chuckled.

Jeremie blush a little and rubbed the back of his head.

"W-well, that's what you get when you accidently fell into sewer water." He laughed with him before clearing his throat. "As I was saying, I was looking for parts when I came to this ladder that lead me to this abandoned factory."

"A factory?"

"Yes and when I came back from little adventure, I found out from the internet that it used to be a old car factory."

Ulrich smiled, "Then I betcha there's tons of parts left behind."

"Yeah, except the sign says that it's off limits." Jeremie warns him. "It'd be risky. Just forget about it, Stern."

His acquaintance ignored the warning and stand up.

"Sorry Belpois, but you made me interested in this robot competition, so I better make sure you win." He said bluntly. "And no doubt Pichon will be entering as well. Don't you want to stand against him for once in equal terms?"

Jeremie stuttered a bit as he said, "I-I do, but I... don't want to get into trouble."

Ulrich place a hand on his shoulder, "Relax, Belpois. You can leave that to me." He then grabs Jeremie's flashlight from the bookshelf. "So, where do I find this entrance."

"Are you sure you want to this, Stern?" Jeremie said as he got up with a worried look. "You could get in trouble with not just the school, but also with the authorities."

The brunette sighed, "Belpois, I've had a bad day today."

"Is it because of your new roommate or the new girl who beat in you pencak silat?" Ulrich gave him a look that made him regret ever asking. "It's near where the track field is."


	3. Chapter 2

"XANA's attacking!" -People talking normally in a conversation

 **[XANA's attacking!] -** Characters talking through phone.

Happy Thanksgiving folks, the chapter is unfinished, but I thought I should give you, the readers, something for the holidays.

Note: Slight AU because I have plans for this fic other than to pair my favorite couple. There is a reference from the show, watch out for it.

* * *

When Ulrich got into the wood in an area near the track field, it did not take long for him to find the man hole cover that his acquaintance talked about. He pulled out his mobile phone and call the blonde genius after climbing down.

 **[Hey Jeremie, I'm in the sewers.]** Ulrich told him once he answered. **[Which directions do I go?]**

 **[If I remember correctly, just go straight until you find a ladder.]** Jeremie said as he added. The blonde genius decided to stop worrying since if he was able to sneak out that one time, then his classmate should be able to as well. **[Although, it could take about 25 minutes on foot to get there unless you run, which I highly advised you don't.]**

Ulrich chuckled as he hanged up as he took his time and walk in slow pace. While he was walking, he reflected on his day today.

Like always, Sissi asked him out on a date and no doubt she will confront him for not coming. Now does he think about it, she would definitely go to his dorm room first since every one should be in bed by now, which means Sissi might find out about Odd's dog. Meaning she would tell this information to her father or Jim. Either way, Odd and his dog will both get in trouble and Kiwi will be sent back home and if Ulrich is lucky, his roommate might also get sent back.

"Well that's one problem solve." Ulrich commented as he look at the silver lining. Now he thinks back about his lost against her.

Kadic Academy has several martial arts clubs such as karate, jiu jujitsu, kenpo, and pencak silat. Ulrich goes to all the clubs and has a black belt in all of them except for the very last one which he is still trying to hone his skills at. Other than William, who is now gone, there are not that many martial artists who attends Kadic and they could not stand a chance against the male brunette...

except for a new student who just enrolled at the beginning of the school year. If he remembered correctly, the new student is of Japanese descendant and is a year older than him since he does not share any classes with her. Early today, she recently joined the pencak silat club and easily defeated him in many rounds. He left the gymnasium steamed and ignored the handshake from her.

Losing to her made Ulrich feel inferior, but reflecting back, he has been neglecting his training since he was getting bored with his routine and there was never any incentive in beating any other of the martial artist since they all ca not hold a candle to him until the new girl came along.

Despite the horrid odour, Ulrich took a deep breathe. Maybe he should apologise the next he sees her. Not wanting to feel more guilty then he all ready is, Ulrich focused at his current task. Looking ahead, he found the ladder that his classmate mentioned.

* * *

When Ulrich climbed up the ladder, he found himself in front of an abandoned factory. With the moon out in the night sky with some dark clouds looming about, it made the deserted building all the more eerie. The young teen found the entrance to be blocked with a sign that has the bold words "KEEP OUT."

Ulrich noticed something about the sign. Walking up to it, the Kadic student brushes a finger along the warning sign. As he expected, a thick layer of dust has encased the entire sign. The dust plus the sign looking like it has seen better days all points to the factory to be very abandoned, meaning the whole building is possibly no longer that important to keep trespassers away.

After looking around to make sure he was the only person there, Ulrich put on a smirk.

"Whoops~"

He clapped his hands to get rid of the dust.

* * *

After throwing the blockade into the river, Ulrich went inside the factory. After waving the flashlight around the place, looking around further emphasizes that the whole building is abandoned; all of the glass windows are broken with all the all fragments laying all around the place, rusty metal, graffiti decorating some parts of the walls, and - of course - the lack of any cleanliness.

Now that he was here, he wondered what parts he could find around here, but when he asked that question in his head, he does not even know what to take from this place if there were any.

"Maybe I should call Jeremie." He said to himself as he called Jeremie, whose number he had on speed dial.

The moment he place his phone near his ear, he did not hear the usual ringing sound when a caller is waiting for the other end to pick, but instead he heard a long ring that indicates there is no signal or the signal got lose. He looked at the screen of his phone and sure enough it said no signal

"What?" Going back outside of the building, he tried to call again, but he still has no signal. "What's going on? I was able to call him in the sewers, but not here?"

He tried to get some distance from the factory, but still no bars on the screen. Frustrated, he sighed and put his phone back into his pocket.

"Screw it, I'll just take what I can and bring it back to him." He declared as he went back into his factory. "I'm sure he'll sure make use of anything I bring him."

Jeremie is undoubtedly smart for his age.

When he got back inside, he noticed that he was in an upper level and below him is another floor. Looking around, he noticed what used to be stairs and an elevator; Ulrich guessed that maybe an earthquake is what made the factory abandoned. Looking around some more, he noticed that there is no way down except for some ropes.

Ulrich looked directly down with the flashlight for a while before he started to sweat his vision started to blur.

He shake his head, "Come on, Stern."

Ulrich had a fear of heights, which did not go well with his vertigo. William helped him conquer his fear, but the vertigo still exist so looking down from a certain height still makes him dizzy.

The teen grabbed the rope while balancing his hands with the flashlight; he went down with no problem. Looking around, he finds some scraps of metal that were laying around along with nuts and bolts, but they were all rusty. He may not be a robotic genius, but Ulrich knows for a fact that rusty metal is not good material for anything. He found a door and when he look through the small see-through window, he saw the door lead to the assembly room, but unfortunately he found the door locked and he doubt he could bust through by force since the door is too thick, and well reinforced.

After looking around the lower level for a while, he found nothing that would useful except to lose in a competition. His frustration from earlier started to come back. He turned his attentions to the elevator.

He leaned against the wall of the elevator near the button.

"Alright, you hunk of junk." He threatened an inanimate object, "You better work, and you better take me somewhere that's good."

With nothing much to lose, he pressed the button and door closed down before going down to a lower level.

* * *

He had to admit, he was kind of afraid of the elevator. It is, after all, very old, and the cable, that is holding it, could snap at any moment. He took long deep breaths to calm himself down.

After waiting for a considerable amount of time, the elevator door opened up. Ulrich was quite surprised to find another door behind the first one, which slowly opened up when a circular mechanism unlocked itself automatically.

The room was dark, which is understandable since he's probably several floor blew ground level. When he flashed the flashlight around, he was surprised by what he sees.

"What is all this stuff?"

If he was honest with himself without sounding crazy, it feels like he was in a futuristic computer lab.

The whole room is covered in some sort of metal, which be an alloy since there is no area of rust in sight, with wires showing in some areas. There is a medium size dome in the center of the room with a computer monitor near by, and a mechanical chair. The computer, unlike the metal chair, is not connected to the ground, rather it is being suspended a few feet from the ground.

Walking to the front of the computer, Ulrich noticed that the computer consists of four screens, one big main screen, and three smaller screens that are angled towards to the user.

"Hmmmm..." Ulrich hummed as he inspected it. "Probably a control center for the factory."

His assumptions makes sense, but it feels like that there is more to this than he thinks. He shrug that thought to the back of his head. The young teen extends a hand up to the keyboard.

 _"Looks like it could still work."_ He thought as he presses a random button, but of course nothing happened. He gave up after a few futile attempts.

Other than being covered in dust, the computer is the only thing in the whole building that seems to be functional and in good condition.

"Maybe its parts can still be used."

The only problem is he has no tools that he can use to dismantle the computer into its individual pieces. He walked back to the elevator door. There has to be at least some tools laying around since the factory that was made to build cars.

* * *

 **To those who are worried, don't worry I won't be cutting Odd off. I find him annoying, but he is still an important character.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the long wait. Allow me to explain at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

Before the brunette teen pressed the button to have the elevator lift to go back up, a thought occurred to him. Are there any other lower levels? Curious, Ulrich pressed the down button instead.

The elevator door closed and the lift went down again. While going down, Ulrich had to admit, this whole place is very peculiar, even for an abandoned factory. His mind told him to go back, but he felt that he already seen plenty so returning back to the dormitory will be a moot point considering it will be hard to forgot all he had just saw in the previous room. Besides, he will not return to Jeremie empty handed.

The elevator door opened and the room is just as dark as the ones in the upper levels. Flashing the light around, Ulrich saw three cylindrically and identically large machinery in the middle of the room.

"I would ask, but I don't have Jeremie with me." Ulrich commented as he wondered what these cylindrical machinery are for.

Finding nothing else interesting in the room, the brunette went back inside the elevator. Again, he set the elevator to go down even further to see what else is here.

As the elevator went down, Ulrich started to notice how cold it was getting, which was apparent from him starting to shiver.

The way down took longer than the others, whatever kind of room the next one was, it must be big.

When the elevator finally opened, Ulrich was blinded from a bright light that illuminated the entire room. Once his sight recovered, Ulrich looked around the room before slowly stepping inside, his footsteps echoed through the room. Like the other floors, the room was full of circuits and made entirely out of metal of some sorts.

Moments after walking in, a circular section of the room started to move which startled Ulrich as he took a step back in precaution. The floor opened up to reveal more circuits and when it was fully open, an enormous device started to emerge from the floor.

Ulrich watches in awe as the device rose up, easily towering over him before reaching close to the ceiling.

"Where have I seen this before?" He asked no one in particular. Having spending time in Jeremie's room numerous, he sometimes read his friend's computer catalogs out of boredom, and because of it, he can identify almost any kind of machinery. He does not understand how they work exactly, but he can still identify some of them at least. "It must be some kind of supercomputer."

He had no idea how right he was.

Ulrich then notices a compartment of the enormous machine opening up. A lever emerges from it.

He may not know much about computers, but he knew to never mess with anything that he has no knowledge of. However, pulling the lever seemed so enticing. Besides, this entire building along with every machinery left was abandoned for a reason, so nothing was probably going to happen.

That is what he thought.

 _"Well, what's the worst thing that this thing could do?"_ He place his hand on the lever.

The answer to his own question? Beyond his wildest imagination.

 _"Besides, if Jeremie was here, he would do the same thing. Wouldn't he?"_

Probably. He most possibly definitely would have.

The lever was pulled down. At first, nothing happened for a moment, and then, a flash occurred, emitted from the machine in front him, blinding him. Instinctively, Ulrich took steps back.

When the flash died down, he opened his eyes slowly in precaution. The room locked the same, but the enormous machine was light up, showing that it was turned on.

* * *

Going on a hunch, Ulrich went back to the room with the computer monitor. When he got back, he noticed the room was also light up, and the monitor turned on, apparent from the dim light it was giving off.

Knowing that it was turned, Ulrich sat on the chair. He pressed random buttons before the monitors fully turned. A familiar looking loading screen appeared, which soon disappeared once it reached 100%. More screens appeared in all of the monitors. Random lines of codes appeared, which Ulrich raised an eyebrow at.

"I'm guessing this is Jeremie's written alien language." He joked as he sat back and watched the screens continued with the codes.

Suddenly, another screen appeared, and this one has a person in it, which surprises Ulrich as he sat up straight on the seat to get a good look. From what he can tell, this person is a young female, around his age, and has pink hair. Strangely, she has elf-like ears with a dangling earring on her left, and has rectangular markings under the edge of her eyes. She appears to be sleeping if that is what her closed eyes indicate.

"What the!?" He exclaimed in awe.

His scream seemed to have woken up the girl on the screen.

She blinked a couple of times before looking around, confused as the boy on the other side of the screen.

"Who-who are you? Where am I?"

Ulrich really did not know how to answer that.

* * *

 **Now, what made it difficult for me to write this chapter was writing what Ulrich thought of the supercomputer because when he first saw it, canonically, he made very little to no reaction at all. The same goes with Jeremie.**

 **In all honesty, the prequel episodes, XANA Awakens, could have been done a little better. Not that I blame the show, I just don't have that much imagination on the scene of the supercomputer being turned on, and I believe the writers also had the same predicament as I had, I mean they just have Jeremie turn on the Supercomputer because he was curious and crazy for computers, not the best idea, but I think they just want that scene done with to make the prequel episodes.**

 **A lot of things has happened since I last updated. One: I busy with a job. Two: I'm attending college classes. Lastly, three: the two deaths in my family.**

 **My step-dad (even though he never married my mom) who has been in my life since my early days in middle school, has passed away in October 9. The other death is my pet cat, who is legally my step-dad's pet, and he passed away weeks after my step-dad.**


	5. Questions and Answers Not Complete

**Now that I finally wrote the scene where Ulrich and Aelita finally meet, the rest should be easier to write.**

 **I have an important essay to write that is due a week from now, so I posted this chapter early since I won't be working on it for the rest of the week.**

* * *

 **The Next Day**

Jeremie sat in class with apprehension building up inside of him. Ulrich did not return to him last night, and he has not yet heard from him. Also, the brunette has yet to appear for first period. Even though the brunette did not have the best grades in Kadic Academy, he was always punctual, mostly thanks to that annoying alarm clock that his father gave him. The blonde genius was worried that some thing had happened at the abandoned factory.

The science teacher, Suzanne Hertz, has just started taking attendance. Each time the elderly teacher called out a name, Jeremie would look at the door, hoping his friend would walk in soon. Thanks to his name being 'Stern', Ulrich is among the students who are usually called last, which the brunette is grateful since he sometimes cuts it close to being marked late due to oversleeping when he forgot to set his alarm. Jeremie really hope that was the case

"Stern?"

Sadly, it was not so.

Jeremie gulped as he bowed his head down. He friend is late.

"Stern?" The female teacher looked up from her clipboard to look at Ulrich's assigned seat. He was not there. She sighed while shaking her head in disappointment. "First failing my class, now not coming to my class?"

Jeremie frowned from the tone of her voice. Even though the brunette boy does not have the best grades, but he is not that bad as the female teacher perceives him to be. He saw that she was about to mark him absent. He decided to take a stand.

"Mrs. Hertz, ma'am?" He called out. This caused some of the students to look at him since the bespectacled boy rare speaks up other than to answer a question.

The teacher stopped what she was about to do to look at her outstanding student.

"Yes, Jeremie. What is it?" She asked with curiosity in her voice along with some tenderness to show her liking for the blonde genius.

Jeremie shyly lowered his head, but kept eye contact with the teacher.

"Ulrich Stern, he...uh...he went to the infirmary, I believe." He told her the lie that he just came up with.

"You believe? What do you mean" She asked, wonder what he meant by that.

Jeremie cringed a little; he did not mean to add that last part. With all his mental strength, he pushed back his nerves before he continued. "I saw him on the way here, but he didn't look well. So logically speaking, he must be in the infirmary."

Mrs. Hertz believed him. In her mind, Jeremie Belpois is a splendid and brilliant student. There was no way he would stain his reputation by lying to the teacher; especially to cover for one of her troubled student. She marked Stern late rather than absent before continuing with the attendance.

Jeremie took a big sigh of relief. He then look backs at the door, wondering if Ulrich came back last night at all.

* * *

Ulrich did actually came back last night to his designated dorm room. When he got back on school grounds, he spotted Sissi searching for him, no doubt to harass him for missing their 'scheduled date.' Luckily, he managed to evade her. When he finally came back to his dorm, he saw his new room mate snoozing away with his dog next to him. Also, his side of the room was cleaned up along with fresh clean sheets for his bed.

At least Odd Della Robbia was considerate.

After seeing the girl in the computer, his brain took a considerable long moment to process it. He soon decided to leave the area and forget what had occurred at the abandoned factory. He left the factory, but he has yet to forget the girl. The last thing he heard from her was her calling out to him, asking him to wait. His mind was on rewind, going back to that very moment of meeting the girl face to face, albeit through a screen, and him leaving soon after.

 _"Who-who are you? Where am I?"_ Her words repeated over and over again in his mind.

She sounded so confused. It worried him.

How the hell does he deal with this situation? He asked himself.

The brunette did not sleep when he got back. He just could not get his mind out of the girl, and before he knew it, it was already morning. Odd has already left for class, so now it was just him and Kiwi in the room. Ulrich was thankful that the dog was being quiet the whole time his master was gone.

Speaking of being gone, he should also leave the dormitory. Jim, doing his job, will be coming soon to check the dorm rooms, to see if any students were still there. The brunette really does not want to deal with classes right now.

He quickly and silently left the building before the gym teacher appeared.

* * *

Not wanting to be seen, Ulrich sneaked out into the woods by the park. He wandered around the trees for a good hour. Comically, he find himself walking into some trees because his mind was still on the girl in the computer.

Why was his mind so worked up on the girl? For all he could know it is just some king of computer game. In the back of his mind, he knew that probability was false. He also knew that this will continue on if he does not confront this. After contemplating for another moment, he headed towards to the manhole.

"I hope I'm not going to regret this." He prayed.

As he continued towards to his destination, the girl's face flashed into his mind. He frowned as he remembered seeing and hearing her confused, and maybe even scared. He may not know much about computers, but he knows someone is in distress.

He quickened his pace.

* * *

After the boy left, the girl in the computer was left completely alone, where ever she was at. From what she can tell and from what she knows, she is currently inside a tall and cylindrical structure, like some sort of tower. The tower was empty save for the platform, that covers mostly the area of the structure, she was on. The wall of the structure was decorated with what appears to be computer screens with codes of 1's and 0's, which disappear as soon it was filled up with said numbers. Other than that, she has no clue why she was there and who that boy was.

She tried calling out for the boy in hope that he comes back, but he never did. She did not know long since she was left alone, and that alone frightened her. She just came into consciousness not knowing who she was and where she was at. Afraid of what to do, she just sat on the platform with her knees against her chest. Every time and then, she call out with a-

"Hello?"

The girl let out a small gasp as a screen appeared in front of her, the same screen that appeared when she first woke up. Like last time, the same boy was also on the screen, and instead of having a confused look, his expression was very stoic.

The pinkette stood up, and the screen rose up with her to level with her eyes. She tried to come up with words to say, but they all died in her mouth.

Ulrich was also hesitant, but he manages to speak up. "Just say, "Hello."" He kindly told her, noticing her distress.

The girl snapped out of her small confusion, and nodded. "Hello." She greeted with a small wave before continuing. "Who..who are you?"

The young man took a moment to consider on answering that question. After seeing that there will be little consequences, he answered.

"Well to start, my name is Ulrich."

"Ulrich?" The pinkette repeated in order to memorize the name and to see if she heard correctly.

Said boy nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, that's my name. Now that I told you mine, it's your turn."

She nodded before opening her mouth to answer, but soon stopped as a question popped into her head.

 _What is her name?_

"I... don't... know."

Ulrich raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean I don't know my name." She told him with sadness in her voice that matches her frown. She was so scared of her unknown location and being alone, it never occurred to her what her name was. Ulrich broke his stoic expression as he frowned. She continued, "I don't know where I am! Why am I here? Who am I?"

This almost made Ulrich teared up.

"You're asking the wrong person." He told her. "I don't even know who or what are you."

That appeared to have been the wrong thing to say at the moment as it only appeared to have made the girl even depressed. She started shaking, and instinctively, she hugged herself in order to calm herself.

Ulrich did not make her feel worse, but she deserved to know. "I...might know WHERE you are." Although he was not so sure with the answer to that question.


End file.
